.jpg)
1 hour ago
3
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. found himself at the heart of a bizarre scoring decision during Monday night's Toronto Blue Jays game at the Los Angeles Angels.
He is, in essence, the reason Angels shortstop Zach Neto was wrongly charged with an error.
In reality, the fact that the umpires missed a call that should've went against Guerrero in the first place is the source of the problem.
The play began with Guerrero on second base. Kazuma Okamoto hit a grounder toward Neto.
The bouncing ball nicked off Guerrero's foot as he tried to avoid it while running in front of Neto.
The slight deflection caused Neto to misplay the ball, so everyone was safe.
MORE: Austin Hedges ended a great Guardians day with a proposal
The problem is this: Guerrero should've been called out when the baseball hit him in front of the fielder. But the umpires didn't see it.
That means that everyone is safe, and the official scorer has to handle the play as if the baseball didn't change directions, even though it did. And so Neto gets an error.
Apparently, Neto can't even catch a break on an appeal here, because that process would also have to operate as if Guerrero never deflected the ball (because by the principle of the rule, if he had, he'd have been out).
Here's the whole sequence:
🚨WEIRD PLAY ALERT🚨
This is from tonight’s @BlueJays at @Angels game.
This ball hits Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. in the foot, but it went uncalled, and Zach Neto for obvious reasons bobbled the ball, which was ruled a fielder’s choice and an error (making R1 safe at second)… pic.twitter.com/C1uLhFUhst
MORE: JJ Wetherholt has already set an all-time Cardinals record
It's definitely a bad break for Neto.
It's somewhat understandable that the deflection wasn't seen. It wasn't a huge one.
Still, it seems like replay review should somehow be able to remedy this.
The Blue Jays didn't end up scoring before the inning was over, so it didn't have a huge impact on the game. It's just an unlucky moment for Neto's fielding metrics.
English (US)